Exploring Early Childhood Professionals’ Readiness for Inclusive Classrooms
Pitanguy Prezoto, Érika (2025)
2025
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025120933896
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025120933896
Tiivistelmä
Inclusive education has become the new norm in early childhood settings in Finland. With the aim of conducting this study, a diverse classroom will be defined and from there, two research questions are aimed to be responded: how do educators perceive their readiness to teach in inclusive classrooms, and what stressors they face in implementing inclusive practices.
This qualitative study was conducted with the working life partner Viinamäen päiväkoti, where semi-structured interviews were performed with 6 early childhood professionals. After transcribing the results, they were analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and translated into pre-defined categories.
Finally, the study concludes that participants feel ready to work in inclusive classroom settings and that was justified by understanding the concept of inclusion, having professional qualifications, having enough years of professional experience, being confident in their own knowledge or their work colleagues’ knowledge, having positive attitudes towards inclusion, and having enough resources available. Collaboration with third parties, staff absence, and time were identified as the biggest challenges encountered in implementing inclusive practices.
Lastly, the paper recommends ideas for future research and serves as an inspiration for other daycares that struggle to implement inclusive practices in their daily routines and keep the professionals motivated to work in inclusive settings.
This qualitative study was conducted with the working life partner Viinamäen päiväkoti, where semi-structured interviews were performed with 6 early childhood professionals. After transcribing the results, they were analysed using Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) and translated into pre-defined categories.
Finally, the study concludes that participants feel ready to work in inclusive classroom settings and that was justified by understanding the concept of inclusion, having professional qualifications, having enough years of professional experience, being confident in their own knowledge or their work colleagues’ knowledge, having positive attitudes towards inclusion, and having enough resources available. Collaboration with third parties, staff absence, and time were identified as the biggest challenges encountered in implementing inclusive practices.
Lastly, the paper recommends ideas for future research and serves as an inspiration for other daycares that struggle to implement inclusive practices in their daily routines and keep the professionals motivated to work in inclusive settings.